GLAD has joined the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Transgender Law Center in a letter urging the Obama administration to clarify that laws such as North Carolina’s HB2 violate federal laws that prohibit sex discrimination, including both Title VII and Title IX, and should put federal funding at risk for states that adopt them:

[W]e have seen an unprecedented number of bills in state legislatures this year that target people for discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity… The administration would significantly aid efforts to repeal HB 2 – as well as prevent the passage of similar legislation in other states both this year and into the future – by providing clarity that such measures violate federal laws against sex discrimination and, as a result, jeopardize a state’s entitlement to significant federal funds.

“Transgender people are under attack across the country. These laws put their safety and their liberty at risk,” said GLAD Executive Director Janson Wu. “Now’s the time for the federal government to step up and use the tools it has to stop these attacks.”